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Start giftingThe Sensory Deception
This audiobook uses AI narration.
We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn more“I can’t believe I ate a seal. And really enjoyed it.”
Moments after venture capitalist Gloria Baradaran experiences what it’s like to be a polar bear—really be a polar bear—she knows she’s found something revolutionary. Farley Rutherford and his team—migraine-tortured neurologist “Chopper” Vittori and über-geek engineer Ringo Hayes—have created sensory saturation, a virtual reality system that drops users into the psyches of endangered animals as they fight for survival, and they believe the profound experience could turn the indifferent masses into avid environmentalists.
Ringo’s hardware is ready to go, but the pressures to get the system off the ground are immense. The money-men want more bang for their buck, and that includes bigger, more dangerous animals, and—more than anything—the ability to turn the machines into profitable games. But to Farely and his team, this is anything but a game. To some, in fact, this is a cause they’d kill for…
The Sensory Deception is a mind-blowing, globe-trotting ride that will take readers from cut-throat Silicon Valley boardrooms to the pirate ships off the Somali coast to the devastated rain forests of the Amazon all to ask the question: What is a human life worth compared to that of an entire planet?
Ransom Stephens is a former physics professor and fifth-generation Californian. After earning his PhD from the University of California–Santa Barbara, he conducted cutting-edge particle physics research and taught at the University of Texas at Arlington. He then moved into the high-tech arena, leaving academia to work for a wireless web start-up. Drawing on his scientific work, Stephens penned the techno-thriller The God Patent. He lives in Petaluma, California.
Reviews
“Thoroughly gripping and quite smart, I found myself swept up in the story.” —Robert A. Burton, MD, author of A Skeptic’s Guide to the Mind
“Writers get asked to provide cover quotes for a great many books. Most, sadly, are forgettable. Some, on the other hand, are quite good, and the rare few are exceptional. Rarer still are the ones that make your jaw drop. Ransom Stephen’s The Sensory Deception is one of those very rare few. Smart but never pretentious or heady, exciting without being mere noise, The Sensory Deception provides an insider’s look at the world of the mind, video games, and venture capital, all wrapped up in a seductive, breathtaking tale of all-too-human folly. Stephens’ characters are brilliant and real and fated to make sensational, dangerous errors, all on the path to realizing the larger truth of their real humanity. I wish I could back and read it all over again—right now.” —David Corbett, award-winning author of The Art of Character
“As with his debut, The God Patent, Ransom Stephens swings for the fences with The Sensory Deception—and he hits another home run, somehow managing to incorporate virtual reality, Somali pirates, the plight of sperm whales and the deforestation of the Amazon into a thrilling and unique story of romance and adventure.” —Robert Kroese, author of Mercury Rises
“Ransom Stephens amps up the tension with his realistic portrayal of virtual reality. A rollercoaster of a ride using the relationship between the senses and the mind, Stephens builds a story with unrelenting momentum.” —Robin Burcell, bestselling author of The Black List
“The Sensory Deception has it all—page-turning action (in such far-flung locations as Somalia and the Amazon rainforest), the bleeding edges of immersive virtual-reality, the rarified world of Silicon Valley startups, eco-activists, Somali pirates, psychotropic substances, and more. Deception is impeccably researched, from the biology of whales, to the neurology of perception, to the socio-economics of modern-era pirates. The story starts at a galloping pace, and never lets up. Dr. Ransom Stephens, a physicist turned novelist, follows-up his previous The God Patent exploration of science and religion with a new science thriller that mines the depths of human consciousness, and the potentials of technology to lift our race to new evolutionary heights.” —Steven Meloan, author of The Shroud
“Ransom Stephens’ imagination is limitless in his ability to lead the reader through scenarios across the globe…The Sensory Deception is a worthy read with fascinating concepts.” —pressdemocrat.com
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